the middle empire of Egypt and centered at Nepata and Meroe. Widespread
trade in gold, ivory, precious stones, skins, wood, and works of
handicraft arose.[14] The Negro began to figure as the great trader of
Egypt.

This new wealth of Ethiopia excited the cupidity of the Pharaohs and led
to aggression and larger intercourse, until at last, when the dread Hyksos
appeared, Ethiopia became both a physical and cultural refuge for
conquered Egypt. The legitimate Pharaohs moved to Thebes, nearer the
boundaries of Ethiopia, and from here, under Negroid rulers, Lower Egypt
was redeemed.

The ensuing new empire witnessed the gradual incorporation of Ethiopia
into Egypt, although the darker kingdom continued to resist. Both mulatto
Pharaohs, Aahmes and Amenhotep I, sent expeditions into Ethiopia, and in
the latter's day sons of the reigning Pharaoh began to assume the title of
"Royal Son of Kush" in some such way as the son of the King of England
becomes the Prince of Wales.

Trade relations were renewed with Punt under circumstances which lead us
to place that land in the region of the African lakes. The Sudanese tribes
were aroused by these and other incursions, until the revolts became
formidable in the fourteenth century before Christ.

Egyptian culture, however, gradually conquered Ethiopia where her armies
could not, and Egyptian religion and civil rule began to center in the
darker kingdom. When, therefore, Shesheng I, the Libyan, usurped the
throne of the Pharaohs in the tenth century B.C., the Egyptian legitimate
dynasty went to Nepata as king priests and established a theocratic
monarchy. Gathering strength, the Ethiopian kingdom under this dynasty